History of the Lake James State Park
During the 1980's the state of North Carolina recognized a need to establish a state park on the shores on Lake James. This park would serve the future needs of the general public who wanted to enjoy lake front facilities such as day use picnic and meeting facilities, camping, hiking trails plus a public beach area. This new park would serve the needs of local and state residents and visitors from all over the world. Local state representative Robert Hunter was very instrumental in negotiating the purchase of 650 acres of water front land from Duke Energy and in acquiring state funding for the development of this newest state park.
Among the smallest of all, this new state park quickly became immensely popular and saw some of the highest visitor counts of any state park in North Carolina. N.C. State Park and Recreation officials and the Lake James State Park Advisory Committee soon found themselves searching for ways to increase visitor capacities. After years of studies it was finally determined that the current park facility was simply not sufficient to expand upon and accommodate the huge number of visitors who wanted to use the facility as a lake front park. The only answer was to significantly expand the facilities by purchasing more lake front property.
At the very same time this was happening there was a significant increase in private residential water front development activities by Crescent Resources- the real estate subsidiary of Duke Energy that owned virtually all of the 154 mile shoreline around Lake James. Local citizens quickly became alarmed over this sudden new development movement and began to organize themselves to fight for the rights of the public to have and hold public lands and to preserve public rights. The Lake James Environmental Association- the oldest and most experienced organization on the lake- took an important leadership role in this movement.
After about 15 years of public and private debates and- ultimately- a lawsuit involving Crescent Resources and Burke County, Duke Energy finally agreed to sell approximately 3,000 acres to the state of North Carolina for the creation of a much-needed new Lake James State Park. This newest state park is the largest created in North Carolina in perhaps sixty years and is a historical, highly significant success that will benefit the general public forever in North Carolina. In fact- this new park facility is likely the largest successful government acquisition and new public park development to happen in the United States during the past three or more U.S. presidential reigns.
The beautiful new Lake James State Park has been scheduled to open during the winter of 2009/2010 and will include a very large beach and swimming area, covered group and private picnic areas, a very nice large staff building with large concession stand and shower/changing facilities, paved bicycle trails and very large parking areas. Future phases will open as quickly as funding can be established and will likely include hiking and cross country cycling trails, primitive camping that will include boating access sites, rental cabins, RV sites and many more much needed conveniences that will be geared toward allowing the public to conveniently enjoy near-wilderness experiences on the shores of Lake James and into Pisgah National Forest. All services and improvements will be created due to a large amount of public input that has been gathered over the past few years. This newest state park will accommodate many thousands more visitors each day in a beautiful modern Lake James State Park. Educational programs will continue to be offered to the public and school groups as well. This new park is truly wonderful and a tribute to public involvement!
LJEA did not accomplish this alone but has played a very significant role along with other organizations and individuals. All of this success has been made possible, in a very large part, through your loyal individual memberships and generous donations to the Lake James Environmental Association. You are each very much responsible in helping to make this new park a reality!
This newsletter article is a brief synopsis of what has occurred through LJEA to help create this newest state park. You may find much more comprehensive information on this subject in the near future “HISTORY” pages of the www.LJEA.org web site. |
